Wasps No. 8 Nathan Hughes has insisted he is fit and raring to go after coming out from the 'dark days' of injury recovery.

Hughes suffered a stop-start campaign last season, with knee injuries plaguing his season.

But now Hughes is hoping his injury problems are behind him as the black-and-golds mount a tilt at a first Premiership title since 2008.

"You can never say 'I'm never going to get injured' but injuries come by bad luck, and I think this pre-season I've prepared well and I'm looking forward to a good season," he said.

"I was speaking to the physio's yesterday and I went through a phase where three years on the bounce I didn't get an injury and it was all coming at one stage in my career so I hope that's my injury part done.

"You have some dark days from doing the same injury twice in one year. You have your dark moments and it's how you come out of it, who you talk to, who you spend time with.

"I was lucky enough to have good physios, good staff and good people around me to push me through the injury period. I've come out of, I've played a couple of games and I'm just ready to go."

Wasps boss Dai Young has boosted his back-row options this year, with former loan star Nizaam Carr signing permanently as well as the addition of England international Brad Shields.

And Hughes, who at times in the past few seasons has been a one man gainline wrecking ball, feels that this competition is healthy for his side.

"Having Nizaam adds more depth into the squad and it's not a matter of us fighting for the jersey , it's a matter of what we can do for the team," he added.

poll loading

Who is your first pick as Wasps' number eight?

0+ VOTES SO FAR

"This weekend will be the test, whoever ends up with the jersey to play and we might play together as well, we can both play 6 as well.

"It's just what we can bring to the table, it's not who will have the jersey. We'll help each other out and push each other to get the jersey each week.

"We want to base our game on good attack and if we can get four or five of the forwards breaking the gainline then we're laughing.

"With the backs that we've got we just have to give them a good platform for them to run and score tries."

Young's men had a poor start to last season, losing four of their first six Premiership games, and, with local rivals Leicester Tigers and 2017 champions Exeter Chiefs early on in the fixture list, it is set to be a tough first block again.